In 1994, civil war erupted in Rwanda, a day after a mysterious plane crash claimed the lives of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi. In the months that followed, hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsi and Hutu intellectuals were slaughtered.

Ten years ago: The Pulitzer Prize for fiction went to Steven Millhauser for “Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer,” but no award was given for drama. The Times-Picayune of New Orleans won two journalism Pulitzers, including the public service prize, for a series examining how overfishing and pollution are devastating the oceans.

Five years ago: Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Palestinians in the West Bank, encountering stiff resistance in the Jenin refugee camp and in Nablus. Actor John Agar died in Burbank, Calif., at age 81.

One year ago: A suicide attack in a Shiite mosque in Baghdad killed 85 people. Tornadoes in Tennessee killed a dozen people. Dena Schlosser, charged with murder for cutting off her baby daughter Margaret’s arms in what her lawyers portrayed as a religious frenzy, was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a judge in McKinney, Texas. A British judge ruled that author Dan Brown did not steal ideas for “The Da Vinci Code” from a nonfiction work.